Chapter Twenty-Five
Edge
I never thought I’d see the day my former club brother crashes through the front door of my house, splintering the damn thing clean off the hinges.
Steel storms through the place like a hurricane. I’m so fucking shocked that I don’t even have time to stand the fuck up off the couch before he’s on me, hauling me up by my shirt and shoulders.
I see the first blow coming and duck, because I’m sure as shit not gonna stand there and take this bullshit anymore. I’m fucking done with this. With all of it. If Steel wants a punching bag, he can go to the goddamn gym and work off his aggression.
“You goddamn fucking rat!” Steel yells in my face.
Even with basically only one good eye, the other blurred and foggy as shit, I can see that he’s gone completely fucking nuts. Straight into the deep end, jumped off with both feet.
I can handle being called a lot of things. I can take a beating any day, have taken it when I thought I deserved it, but this is too fucking much. No one calls me a rat, not even my Prez. Or former Prez, as it were. Former friend, former brother. Former fucking everything.
I let out an explosive bellow of rage as red paints my vision.
The kind of red brought on by shades of pure, unadulterated rage.
It takes Steel by surprise. His eyes widen in shock as I bring my fist up, straight into his jaw.
He reels back, his hands slackening on my t-shirt, from the vicious blow.
I didn’t hit him hard enough to crack his jaw or knock sense into him, apparently, because he comes at me.
Hurtles himself at me, a three hundred fucking pound freight train of rage, leather, and steel.
I go down hard, my chest collapsing as the wind rushes out of me.
Memories of the last time we did this come rushing back at me, but I’m not gonna let him beat me into the fucking floor again.
Even though I’m still gasping like a dying fish, I manage to swing out blindly with my fist. Even though Steel leans back and I miss, he’s exactly where I want him.
Just far enough up that when I bring my knee up, it catches him straight in the balls.
He rolls off me, clutching at a spot where no man should hit another man. Not that I was aiming for it, but it did the job.
Steel curls into a tight, fetal ball and lets out a groan that makes my own balls ache.
“You motherfucking rat bastard!” he moans as he struggles to catch his breath.
His face is a sickly shade of gray, and as I get to my feet, I have a hard time feeling sorry for the bastard. “I’m not a guy who kicks a man when he’s down,” I pant. “No matter how much I want to. But call me a rat again, and I’ll give you a fucking taste of your own fucking shit kickers.”
Steel groans but manages to unfurl enough to flip me the bird. Nice. He lets out a shaky exhale, as though testing to see if his lungs still work. “You’re the only one who could have organized it…” he rasps, a line of spittle trailing from his bottom lip.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” My shoulders heave with each hard breath. I grind my teeth after and curl my hands into fists, trying to keep it the hell under control and not go completely fucking off the handle on him.
“Leah. The girls. Harley… Christine… they were… taken. Guys left a note at the fucking spa with the… front desk girl,” he spits out.
“It’s the Devil’s Slaves, as we thought.
Took ‘em and left us a fucking calling card. Their Prez wants a meeting. Our Prez, our VP, and one other bastard of our choosing. Have to go to Jacksonville tonight. Probably a fucking trap. They want our territory. Our fucking warehouses. Our grow-ops, and our connections. Want it all, and they’ve taken our women to ensure that’s exactly what they’re gonna get. ”
I reel back at the words like Steel just landed a physical blow. I watch him, panic tearing away at my insides as it sinks in that Harley was taken. That she’s being held by those bastards. That they could have, or can do, anything they damn well want with her.
All I can do is force myself to breathe. In and out. In and fucking out, otherwise I’m going to run out that busted front door, get on my bike, and fight my fucking way in, guns blazing or not, to get my woman back. I’ll kill anyone that has dared to touch her. I’ll—
“It only makes sense…” Steel gasps out as he pushes shakily to his feet, “that you were the one who fuckin’ told ‘em where they were.”
I round on him so fast it stuns even me.
I grasp a fist full of leather and haul the bastard all the way up with brute strength.
He might have a little bit of weight on me, a few inches in height, if that, but he’s poked the wrong fucking bear.
I snarl at him, spraying spittle all over his face when I speak.
“Why the fuck would you say that? Why the fuck would I give them the person I love most in this goddamned world? They have Harley. My woman.”
Steel blinks at that, like it still hasn’t sunk in that his daughter loves me, that I love the hell out of her, that I will light up a trail of destruction and devastation as I blaze my path to get her back.
I shake Steel hard. “Why the fuck would you call me a rat?” I demand again, since he still hasn’t answered me. “Harley was at The Canteen when that shit went down. She was shot. She could have been killed.”
“But you didn’t know she’d be there, did you?
” Steel fires back, some of the life and rage flooding back into his face as his color changes from that gray to a more normal shade of bronze.
“You thought she’d be here. You weren’t there.
You knew I wasn’t either. They had complete access to the place. We were vulnerable and you knew it.”
“But they have Harley now,” I hiss. “Why the hell would they take her if I was a rat?”
“Could have arranged it so that they won’t hurt her.
Just take her with the rest. That they’ll give her back to you unharmed.
You left the Riders. It’s easy for you to side with another club.
Shift your loyalties to the winning side and take down your old club in the process. It would be a big win for you.”
Even though I want to slam my fists into Steel’s face until there’s nothing left of it but a bloody pulp, kick him when he’s down and piss all over his prone form, I force myself to release him and take a step back.
Then another, and another, until there’s a safe distance between us, between him and me and my desire to brutalize him into seeing sense.
At the heart of it, he’s still Harley’s father. I once respected and loved this man as my own blood. For that alone, I’ll spare him. For now. He calls me a rat again, I might just lose my shit and make good on my baser, violent urges.
“You know…” I start, breathing heavy to combat my rage.
“For the past week you’ve been on one hell of a fucked up bender.
So fucking single minded that you wouldn’t see fucking sense.
If you’d pull your head out of your ass for three seconds, you’d see that I wasn’t here the night of that shooting because I was out looking for you.
Maybe it’s time to get rid of the bullshit filter and take a fresh look at shit.
Do you honestly think that I’d betray my own club?
A club I fucking founded with you? A club that means everything to me?
My only family. If you think that, then you’re not the man I thought you were. ”
Steel bares his teeth at me, but he stays where he’s standing. He doesn’t launch himself at me again or throttle me, even though I can tell, by the way his fists keep clenching and unclenching, that he wants to.
“All this time you’ve been sneaking around with Harley. Behind my back. You put your dirty hands on her. You were supposed to protect her just like you were supposed to have my back. Why the fuck wouldn’t I think you were a rat when all you’ve done is betray me?”
“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” I snort, “when I said you have a shit filter going on. Take off the fucking blinders, Steel. Did I say anything when you chose the daughter of the man who wanted to bring our club to its knees, to be your woman? Or did I stand by you? Did I or did I not go in there fighting alongside you when your woman was taken and put a bullet in that fucker’s brain for you? ”
Steel mumbles something as his nostrils flare.
“What’s that? I didn’t fucking hear that, because I’m pretty sure we both know the answer is yes.
” I glare at him. At least he’s listening now.
“And like we’ve both been trying to tell you, we weren’t sneaking around behind your back.
We never meant it to happen, but when Harley was working in the shop this summer we…
We realized that things had changed. But I swear nothing happened.
Never claimed her as truly mine until a few days ago and even then, I tried to push her out of here.
She made it clear what her choice was and if you’d pull your fat fuckin’ head out of your damn ass, you’d see that it shouldn’t be that way.
She shouldn’t have to choose between us.
Between having her father’s love and approval and being with the man she loves. ”
“She’s too fuckin’ young.”
“She’s twenty-one. She’s your daughter but she’s a grown woman.
At least you know with me, I’ll treat her like a queen.
I’ll fight for her and I’ll fuckin’ die for her if that’s what it takes.
I’ll protect her and watch over her and do my damn level best to make her happy.
This isn’t just some hook-up. She’s mine, and either you’ll come around to that, or you fucking won’t but that’s your choice.
What’s not a choice is getting her back.
And Leah, and Christine. I think even you can see that you calling me a rat when I’m clearly not, does no one any fucking good.
So put your grudge aside, and let’s work together to get our women back from those bastards. ”
Steel’s eyes narrow and his nostrils flare again. He looks like a wild animal, right now.
“Fine,” he growls. “But if I find out that you had anything to do with this, with any of it, you’re a dead man.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard it from you,” I growl back.
We’re like two male dogs, about to go for each other’s throats when what we need to be doing is leading the pack together against the real threat.
“Whoever the rat is, he’s the dead man. I’ll kill that fucker myself.
Now tell me where the hell to go to get Harley back. ”